Focus at Four: How the new healthcare bill could affect ages 50-64 most

BRYAN, Tex. (KBTX) -- As politicians in Washington D.C. are busy debating the new Republican healthcare bill, experts in the field are looking closer at how the average American would be affected by the law.

Healthcare policy researches are saying people aged 50 to 64 face the largest cost increases, as the age group old enough to have serious healthcare needs but too young to sign up for Medicare.

The American Health Care Act, in its current form, would bring a couple of relevant changes.

First, insurance companies would be allowed to charge older Americans five times as much as they charge people in their twenties. Under the current system, they can't charge more than three times as much as for younger people.

AARP estimates people in their fifties would see a 13 percent jump in premiums.

The new bill also gets rid of subsidies and replaces them with tax credits. An A&M healthcare policy says it won't be enough.

"It's not going to even out," said Timothy Callaghan, an assistant professor and healthcare policy go-to at the Texas A&M School of Public Health. "It is important to note that there will be tax credits, and they are going to be age-based. A young person is going to get fewer tax credits than someone who's older, but if you're looking at the size of the subsidies under the Democratic administration versus the tax credits under the Republicans, it's just less money."

Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, who's been a champion of this bill, has said himself that this is an issue that needs to be fixed before the legislation goes to a vote.

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